Ethics in Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Impact on Business Decisions and Relevance in Small Businesses

Running head: ETHICS IN COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA
Ethics in Commonwealth Bank of Australia
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ETHICS IN COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA
Executive Summary
This report focuses on the relevancy of ethics in business decisions and the impact of ethics on
such decisions. It evaluates the link between ethics and the business decisions taken by the
Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The report presents the various rules, regulations and policies
of the company that is followed for taking business decisions and the cases of ethical decisions
of CBA. The last part of the report intends to understand the relevancy of ethics in small scale
businesses.

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ETHICS IN COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................3
Positive impact of ethics in business decisions...............................................................................4
Treatment of employees..............................................................................................................4
Competition.................................................................................................................................5
Financial activities.......................................................................................................................5
Social impact...............................................................................................................................5
Relevancy if ethics in business decisions in CBA...........................................................................6
Policies and practices and rules of CBA..........................................................................................6
Code of Conduct..........................................................................................................................7
Anti-money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing........................................................7
Code of Banking Practice............................................................................................................7
Insider trading guidelines............................................................................................................7
Political donations.......................................................................................................................7
Group Whistle Blower Policy......................................................................................................8
Anti-bribery and corruption policy..............................................................................................8
Ethical decision making of CBA.....................................................................................................8
Relevancy of ethics in small businesses..........................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10

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ETHICS IN COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA
Introduction
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) founded in 1911 by the Australian
Government is an Australian multinational bank which operates in New Zealand, United
Kingdom, Asia and United States. Its financial services include business and institutional
banking, retail, insurance, superannuation, fund management, broking services and investment.
The brands of Commonwealth Bank are Colonial First State Investment, Bankwest, ASB Bank
(New Zealand), Commonwealth Insurance CommInsure and Commonwealth Securities
(CommSec). It is the largest Australian listed company on the Australian Securities Exchange. .
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia maintains business ethics and strictly follows its code of
conduct. The company believes that in order to be a good business a bank needs to serve its
customers, shareholders and community a service of high quality and understanding their needs.
The company faces many such situations where the members of the organisation needs to take
difficult decision. This is where their Code of Conduct and ethics help them to take such major
decisions which guide their decision by providing an insight into what needs to be done what
should be avoided. This report deal with the ethics and policies of the organisation and their
impact on decision making process.
Literature Review
According to Koller, Patterson and Scalf (2014), ethics is a vital element in every
organisation to carry out the day to day business activities and it plays a pivotal role in the
decision making process of the top level managers. Business organisations aim to serve the
society in the best possible for which business ethics need to be followed by the originations.
According to Hoffman, Frederick and Schwartz (2014), existence of ethics in an organisation